Katowice Trip – Getting to Stansted Airport
Another week, another adventure. And yes, it’s all relative, I’m not Bear Grylls and so my adventures don’t require me to jump out of a plane or anything similar. This time it was a return to Katowice, one of my favourite cities in Poland. Liam kindly agreed, once again, to pick me up on his way to London, and initially I was planning for him to take me straight to Stansted Airport. However, the potential lack of sleep before the morning flight didn’t feel entirely optimal, so at the last minute (which required me to call Liam when he was ten minutes ago asking him if he fancied a trip to Braintree) I booked a Travelodge as it was an affordable price. My room overlooked my chauffeur, who isn’t allowed to leave until I’m safely checked-in.
A comfortable room at Braintree Travelodge, all quiet with no internal or external noise disturbances, it’s a reliable hotel this once. I’ve only been twice, so maybe I don’t have enough data points, but I’m happy with it so far.
Leaving the hotel, just after 06:00 in the morning.
Fortunately, the coach station is just outside the Travelodge, so it was not a long walk.
There we go, the X20 service to Stansted Airport which is operated by First Bus. The service costs just £2 because of the bus cap, something which made this whole little diversion to Braintree feel more affordable.
And safely on board. And, although I rarely stray into politics, I’m unimpressed by Louise Haigh who is the new Transport Secretary. She has refused to say whether there will be an extension of the bus cap, despite it being painfully aware that this should be confirmed by now and numerous figures in the transport industry have been asking for some clarification. Short-termism is detrimental to any sort of planning and this feels very unfair on the bus companies and risking showing contempt for the travelling public. And, yes, that was quite political, but I’d add that it’s just Haigh in the Cabinet that has significantly disappointed me with almost childlike media appearances. I really will now return to the main matter, which was that the bus arrived on time and was reasonably clean and tidy. It’s a very handy service operating across Suffolk, running around every 60 minutes for 24 hours a day.
